Weekly Sports Analytics News Roundup – October 2nd, 2018

Football: Next Gen Stats: Intro to Completion Probability (Part II). Football Perspective announces Week 4 Is The Greatest Passing Week In Passing History (Again). FiveThirtyEight finds NFL Coaches Are Going For Two More Than Ever. (It Took Them Long Enough.). Football Perspective’s work on Cam Newton and Modified Completion Percentage and Rushing First Downs.

College Football: Bill Connelly’s Week 5 Five Factors box scores. Football Outsiders’ FEI Week 4 Ratings and Mean Wins Update. FiveThirtyEight proposes that  Alabama’s Offense Is Now As Terrifying As Its Defense. Massey and Peabody: Notre Dame joins the lead pack for College Football Playoff. Ralph Russo article on Army combining old-school offense, 21st century analytics.

Baseball: FanGraphs makes the case for Jacob deGrom for NL MVP. Baseball Prospectus Baseball Therapy: The Lies of October. FanGraphs’ The Law of Tanking, Part Two. Beyond the Box Score points out Corey Knebel has been almost impossible to hit in September. FanGraphs writes Forget Starting Pitchers. It’s Bullpen Season. Walk Like A Sabermetrician blog post on runs to wins conversion. A Hardball Times piece on Big Mo: Do Blowouts Impart Momentum? Boston Globe on How Alex Cora changed the culture of the Red Sox regarding analytics.

Basketball: Nylon Calculus Deconstructs preseason NBA player rankings. The Harvard Sports Analysis Collective says Wanna Make Money in the NBA? Be a Center. Nylon Calculus works on answering these questions:

• How can we predict performance for incoming NBA players?
• How will spacing and shot selection evolve to maximize offensive efficiency?
• How can an analytic approach be applied to player psychology?
• How can we best measure individual defensive impact?

Soccer: American Soccer Analysis tries to answer Where Will We Find the American Messi? StatsBomb identifies The Best Two Way Premier League Players. EightyFivePoints on Exceeding Expected Goals.

Tennis: Heavy Topspin ponders How Fast Was the Laver Cup Court? FiveThirtyEight notes There Are Officially Zero Men’s Grand Slam Winners In Their 20s.

Conferences:  The Carnegie Mellon Sports Analytics Conference will be held October 19-20 in Pittsburgh. On October 26th in London is the UK Sports Analytics Conference 2018.